Jackson`s Rainbow Has Plenty Of White

March 10, 1988|By DIANE HIRTH, Tallahassee Bureau

HOUSTON -- Southern whites with blue collars helped on Super Tuesday to bring a black presidential contender into the American political mainstream.

White farmers from south Georgia clay fields and white laborers in Texas oil fields were among the voters in the Democratic presidential primary who made a reality out of the Rev. Jesse Jackson`s longtime claim to a ``rainbow coalition.``

Jackson was asked on Wednesday morning whether he finally had prevailed over the longstanding political assumption that a black candidate could not win many white votes.

``Well, the notion is put to rest for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear,`` he said. ``But, of course, some people still have their own blindness.``

Add up all of the popular votes in the 20-state, Southern-based mega-primary and Jackson actually emerges in first place with 27 percent. Just behind, with 26 percent each, are Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and U.S. Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee -- but both had the advantage of home-state primaries on Tuesday.

Jackson collected roughly 10 percent of the white Southern Democratic vote. Among white Texans, that number swelled to an estimated 14 percent; among white Georgia farmers, an even more impressive 33 percent.

Jackson showed the most obvious pride in winning Alabama`s primary. In Selma 23 years ago, he and other civil rights demonstrators were harassed by local police. On Tuesday night, Jackson was guarded zealously by the Secret Service.

``We, the people, can win!`` a hoarse and jubilant Jackson shouted over and over in his speech Tuesday night.

Four other Deep South states -- Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia and Louisiana -- also went into Jackson`s win column.

And in Texas, the biggest prize of Super Tuesday, Jackson ran such a strong second that it appears he netted virtually as many delegates as the winner, Dukakis, despite being greatly outstaffed and outspent.

``It`s definitely a phenomenon that most people didn`t take into account even two months ago,`` said Grace Garcia, a longtime Texas political activist whose credits include running Jimmy Carter`s 1980 state campaign among Hispanics. ``He was still segregated then as `the black candidate.```

Texas` most populous county includes Houston; 47 percent of its vote went to Jackson (Dukakis was next with 28 percent). Jackson also decisively carried Dallas County with 46 percent.

In the economically depressed ``oil patches,`` Midland and Beaumont, Texas, he also ran first -- with 36.5 percent and 33 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, Jackson`s second-place showing in Florida included a strong win in the conservative Panhandle`s 2nd Congressional District. He also won two more of Florida`s 19 congressional districts.

He also ran second in North Carolina and Massachusetts, Super Tuesday`s richest delegate states after Texas and Florida.

In the contests ahead, Jackson is almost sure to continue to get strong black support and enthusiastic black turnout.

``The question is no longer whether he can attract white voters. The question is who among white voters can he attract?`` said Mayor Mike Mears of Decatur, Ga., co-chairman of his state`s Jackson campaign.

``It is clear that his campaign is definitely striking a chord,`` Garcia said.